GHAZIABAD: Citing an RTI response, the Federation of Apartment Owners Associations (FAOA) has said that despite thousands of notices being issued by the Ghaziabad Development Authority to errant developers, illegal constructions continue to mushroom in various parts of Ghaziabad.

In a letter addressed to the GDA chairman, Santosh Yadav, FAOA president Alok Kumar, said, "Thousands of notices were sent by the GDA to persons violating building bylaws, between 2009 and 2013. I received 626 pages of references of thousands of notices about these violations, following applications made under the Right to Information Act. The notices were issued under Sections 26 and 27 of the state Development Act. But unauthorised constructions continue to stand, after a brief period of sealing them, in most cases."

The letter added, "The time being spent at your end, in the name of seeking clarifications from the erring builders and allottees is giving confidence to all offenders in your development area to continue to make illegal constructions...and eventually get away scot free by paying a minimal fine or without any punishment or fine at all, causing a huge loss to the exchequer," he wrote.

Supreme Court lawyer and counsel for the FAOA, Sudipta Pal, said the Allahabad high court had ruled, in Ashok Kumar versus the Haridwar Development Authority, "When illegal constructions are being completed violating notices which restrained the construction, it amounts to collusion and reflects very badly on the administration which is meant to regulate urbanization."

He said the GDA must reveal details of all cases where they have realized fines in building bylaw violations, and give a number on the amount. Suppressing this information remains a major source of corruption as well as the main reason why building is not properly regulated, he added. "This is why the infrastructure falls apart."

At a time when issues over land acquisition have stalled several infrastructure projects across the country, the UP government has included certain provisions to its Integrated Township Scheme which are expected to benefit both developers and farmers

The land grab at Ghangapatna, on the outskirts of the city, may not be an isolated case. The state government has started preliminary inquiry into suspected encroachment on government plots at nearby Malipada and Gothapatna villages

The CBI, which concluded its probe into the Deoghar land scam worth Rs 1,000 crore, has now received sanction from the state to prosecute government officials who allegedly facilitated the illegal sale of around 826 government-owned acres